It occurs to me that I never formally introduced the two humans who are helping me with this story.

First of all, we have McPoodle, who wrote his own self-introduction here for “The Best of All Possible Worlds”. On top of his translation duties, McPoodle is also a bit of an author, and I have been informed that most of the stories published using his account were actually written by him. I may have also heard something about a pony-initiated lawsuit, although the details elude me.

Hope (no relation to the alias I came up with for the disguised Celestia, either in fact or in metaphor) is also an author, and a bit of an organizer. Not being much of a reader of fiction based on myself or the ponies I care about, I wouldn’t really know too much about that. I do know that she’s done a great job at motivating me in recent weeks to get this story “into gear”, as it were.

I’ve asked her to submit an essay to put alongside McPoodle’s, and here it is. I’ll leave it uncolored, but in future, you can expect McPoodle’s contributions to my posts to be in orange, and Hope’s in purple.

Hello everyone! My name is Hope Dawn. Legally changed after the portal opened, it used to be much more mundane. I am Her Royal Majesty’s editor and sounding board for this story that she has been kind enough to make public.

For some personal history, I am the author of a few short pieces of work myself, all published before the portal opened. The most famous of these is The history of the unicorn, Mythology or Sociology?

Surprisingly this is not why I was hired on to work with the Princess. Rather a hobby of mine overtook me, after posting a small ad in a Las Vegas newspaper. This ad was looking for adventurous and creative persons who would be willing to meet up with me and collaborate on a project, however the only response I received was a scroll.

This scroll being delivered in person and by a thestral took me by surprise, surpassed only by my surprise when I was greeted by the royal seal of the moon upon opening it. She advised me that she had been searching for an expert on popular culture, and was willing to hire me or collaborate with me remotely on a few things.

This resulted in a two day cowering session during which Narcie (My recently official girlfriend, a unicorn by the name of Narcissus Blossom) was able to convince me that the Princess of the night was not in fact trying to capture me for loving a unicorn, and in addition that the Princess would not want to “suck my blood.”

Of course, by then a second thestral had arrived, and she stayed a few hours to explain the deal. I would be allowed to travel with the Princess or remain here. Both options would involve employment and collaboration. The deliberation took another day, and then Narcie and I began to pack.

Now on the road with a winged unicorn in addition to my girlfriend, most days I alternate hours of panic and fascination at my situation. I have also come to know Her Royal Majesty’s proofreader, an odd fellow who goes by the name McPoodle. He makes a good conversationalist when he isn’t making the Princess angry.

As I have been asking recently to collaborate on the blog posts being made, I was told that the readers likely have no idea who I am, leading to this into.

Let’s see, I’ve covered the checklist; personal info, situation, past work... Narcie says that I should also talk about my hobbies.

Before becoming an author I was a field engineer for an IT company in Nevada, in the United States. I build computers in my spare time and play more video games than are likely good for me. I wonder if the Princess has ever played any?

Regardless, thank you for reading the story and this blog post, I hope that I can help the Princess to complete her current and future creative endeavors.

Hello everyone! My name is Hope, I am a fairly low key author who has probably written more poetry than stories, but upon gaining a working friendship with McPoodle through the Pony Earth Verse series of stories, I decided to abuse that friendship by becoming a co-author in one of his stories!

Fun times.

A bit of trivia involving our current work, I am not writing Hope in the story! Nope, I’m writing a few others but not that one. I had to decide if I was flattered or if I should be concerned, and in the end I decided that any association with Celestia is a good one, and moved on with my life.